Watching this video, I felt sure at certain points the dog was eating the chicken alive, but as it progresses you realize that the dog is the chicken’s carwash and bedroll. The second of the series is just as mysteriously non-carnivorous on the part of the dog.
Dogs in our neighborhood are too inquisitive about the chicken run and the chickens hate it, so you won’t see any home videos like this from us soon.
Herbert Throws Himself at a Half Peach
Usually I have the cartoons – lame or effective as is their wont – presented standalone so that they speak for themselves, but I have to add a dose of reality here. Usually our chickens, who will devour popcorn, spinach, cooked carrots, etc with aplomb and down to the bare yard, were not keen on the peaches we left in the coop run. They maybe got each peach down to the half-peach pictured and then started mournfully bawking for popcorn instead. This even while relatively sunny so we know it’s not Seattle’s lack of summer creating moodiness.
Yes, sometimes the cartoons lie. (But you probably knew that from Steampunk chicken anyway. A real Steampunk chicken would have had better spats. )
Someone’s been looking too long at etsy.com….
Gorgeous blue water, sun, ocean breezes. Except if this were Kauai, you’d have seen flocks of wild chickens on the way up to this altitude. Jason can’t help but compare and Orcas just does not come out ahead on the chicken front. So we went to the gift shops.
3D Artist Show Sign in Eastsound, Orcas Island
Here under a display for an artist show, we located a more unusual wedding anniversay present (maybe 16 years instead of the metal-chicken 15 of the Bloggess?). I present – Concrete Chicken! A gift that will not oxidize!
Concrete Chicken – An Anniversary Gift that won’t rust
Finally I should show you what we actually bought – courtesy of some Orcas Island felters who also have a shop on etsy BossyFeltWorks .
Tiny, yet toney. Subtle. Fuzzy.
Felted Chicken by Bossy Felt Works on Orcas Island
Shy Chicken, least of the hens in the pecking order
Shy Chicken is essentially the lowest on the chicken pecking order in our group of chickens. She is the smallest and easiest to bully by Bossy Chicken, and when she had the awful blowout, they didn’t really hold back.
Now she’s starting to go more raw/bald on the top of her head, and I’m worried she’s looking a bit more bedraggled around the butt and various points on her body. It could be molting – which they all did in the summer – or it could be something in the pecking order negotiations.
While looking all this up online I stumbled upon the fact that there’s actually a *financial pecking order* or Pecking Order Theory. Basically the way it goes is, a business will raise money or pay off its bills in a certain order
– use internal money (think of this like using your savings once you lost your job)
– debt (think of this like using your credit card when your savings run dry)
– equity (think of this like selling a kidney when your credit card maxes out)
If there are any parallels to our chicken, I fear that means Shy Chicken is getting her kidneys pecked out, but Jason of course says she is fine. Will keep you posted.
I had heard of Cibo Matto in the 1990’s but they hadn’t really sunk in, if you know what I mean. Japanese girl bands didn’t fit my musical tastes at the time, and I did not have the chicken consciousness I have now.
The official MTV video is here (can’t embed, but has silent movie avant garde style dialogue that helps you fully appreciate the chicken lyrics).
Jason found the original J-pop video from the 1990s but in doing more research, I was astonished to find that Cibo Matto had re-united to go on tour in 2011 – and I apparently just missed these guys in Seattle! Who knew!
Know Your Chicken Seattle Style (intro)
Live in Los Angeles at a slightly later show
Never underestimate the rejuvenating power of the chicken song. People remembered that song, and it was apparently a mainstay of the tour! 🙂
Jason reminded me of this article from The New Yorker and how even trendy Manhattanites can get seduced by chicken.
People who say cheerily things will work out fine while leaving it to other people to make sure it works out fine? Uh-huh. No eggs for you baby! Earn that optimism!
P.S. Er… Sometimes even *I* have no idea what my cartoons are really about 🙂
Confused by the old sandbox
Jason recently took pity on the chickens – it was a sort of gray day with occasional sun and they were bawking so mournfully. So he let them out to run around the yard while he sorted out crap in the toolshed. He found that chicken depth perception and poor memorization skills meant that if he penned them in with paint cans they would not pass the cans. And also, even if he removed the cans, they would not realize the way was clear. We had a memorably stupid series of popcorn luring moments, where they didn’t pay attention, and then he just decided to ignore them after throwing popcorn in the coop.
When they relaxed he started chasing them toward the popcorn in the chicken run and finally managed to get all three back in the Omlet Eglu. He could have waited for dark but that’s taking chances with dogs and hawks in our neighborhood. Though apparently in Seattle we are getting worse at keeping our birds of prey alive . (There have been hawks hanging around Highway 520 but no, the bus had to hit a bald eagle.)
In the photo above, you see Bossy and Business (right), exploring the perimeter of the ancient shallow sandbox that came with the house. In winter the coop would be placed under the deck and behind that red post – but for now it’s just gravel and weeds and the sandbox lid. Business DID manage to catch a worm, though not where my camera could nab her at it.
One of the nice side effects of jury duty recently in downtown Seattle was getting to walk by some cool chicken art photography.
Business Chicken 